Welcome to One-to-One Week 13. This week’s theme is Introduction to the Bible – Part 2: Redemption and Kingdom. As a quick review, the four major themes of the Bible are Creation, Fall, Redemption and Kingdom. We can look at every book of the Bible and find the themes covered fit into one or more of these four themes. Last week we investigated Creation and Fall, so if you are new to One-to-One, you’ll want to start with last week, or at least scan through the daily studies on creation and fall before picking up here, so you’ll understand these four, basic themes. This week’s themes of Redemption and Kingdom show us God is for us even when we reject Him, and God’s ultimate purpose of establishing His Kingdom or reign can never be thwarted. Redemption is a powerful word. To redeem as the word is used in the biblical theme of redemption is to pay the price of freedom for one who is enslaved. In the case of the biblical theme of redemption, Jesus paid the penalty for each of us to be freed from slavery to sin and death on the cross of Calvary and thus provided redemption for us all. Redeemed humanity is able to carry out God’s original plan of establishing His Kingdom on the earth, thus, the name Kingdom for the fourth Biblical theme.

Let’s turn now to the theme of redemption. As we noted last week, because the first two human beings, Adam and Eve, rejected the perfect world and relationship God created for them, they “fell,” that is they introduced sin into humanity. Their relationships with God, one another and even creation were broken. That made redemption necessary. Since God is a holy and perfect being, and cannot tolerate sin, humanity was destined for destruction both temporally (in time) and eternally (beyond time). Since humanity had fallen and perfection was required in order to restore the broken relationship with God and others, the only one who could provide redemption was God. In the period of time we call the Old Testament era, God’s process for providing redemption took place through various “covenants,” or agreements between God and people. God protected Adam and Eve after their fall from immediate death, by providing them with clothing, and by continuing to speak with them, although the relationship was no longer daily and intimate.

By the time of Noah, the sin of human beings had become so great God determined to destroy humanity, except for one righteous family, the family of Noah. We could say God redeemed humanity through Noah’s line, and when a great flood was sent to destroy humanity, God saved Noah, his wife, Noah’s three sons and their wives along with representative animals to reintroduce them to the earth after the flood. When the flood ended God established that He would never again destroy the earth by flood, and as a sign of this covenant, He provided a rainbow. While God’s ultimate redemption was still thousands of years from being fulfilled through God coming in the flesh in the man, Jesus Christ, God showed He had not given up on humanity, and once the line of humanity started reproducing, God selected a specific descendant of Noah, named Abram, whose name was later changed to Abraham to be the “father,” of God’s people the Jews or Israelites. God made a covenant with Abraham that he would be the father of countless descendants, that he would receive a land of his own where these descendants would live, and that all the nations of the earth would be blessed through Him. Again, this promise would come true in its fullest form in Abraham’s “descendant” Jesus, but as the Israelites became established as a people, God entered into a legal covenant with them through Moses. The Mosaic covenant established the means for human beings to be redeemed when they sinned. This was to be accomplished through the development of a system of sacrifices and offerings. The covenant was specific and extensive. The major problem with the covenant was human beings never kept it fully. Though the nation evolved from a nomadic tribe, to a people who entered the “Promised Land,” and lived as a loosely held “confederacy,” of tribes, to a monarchy, the full plan of God’s redemption was not seen until Jesus came to the earth. For today, suffice it to say God has always been for people, even though we have always rejected Him, and sought our own desires, before turning to Him. Tomorrow we will look more fully into Jesus’ redemption, and then on days three and four of this study we’ll introduce the theme of Kingdom. While our coverage in this week of study, as was the case with last week’s study of Creation and the Fall, is quite basic and incomplete, it gives us, as the title indicates, an introduction to these important themes and how they carry through all the Bible.

The theme Scripture for today as we consider redemption comes from Psalm 130. While the Psalms are frequently referred to as the “Prayer Book” of the Bible, they are also quite often the “Memory Book,” of the Bible, that is they record the collective memory of the people of Israel about certain realities. Psalm 130 gives us a great overview of what redemption is, and shows us redemption comes from God. Let’s look at it now: Psalm 130:1-8 (NLT) 1From the depths of despair, O LORD, I call for your help. 2Hear my cry, O Lord. Pay attention to my prayer. 3LORD, if you kept a record of our sins, who, O Lord, could ever survive? 4But you offer forgiveness, that we might learn to fear you. 5I am counting on the LORD; yes, I am counting on him. I have put my hope in his word. 6I long for the Lord more than sentries long for the dawn, yes, more than sentries long for the dawn. 7O Israel, hope in the LORD; for with the LORD there is unfailing love. His redemption overflows. 8He himself will redeem Israel from every kind of sin. Psalm 130:1-8 (NLT) Notice the psalm succinctly states three realities about God and redemption: 1) Human beings sin and need God’s redemption; 2) God forgives us, so we may hope in Him; and 3) God is the one who redeems us and not we ourselves. While we don’t read of the sacrificial system established by God through Moses, to bring forgiveness and redemption, the psalmist makes it clear when humans sin, God alone forgives and redeems us. This reality paves the way for the ultimate Redeemer, Jesus, of whom we will speak tomorrow.

Today’s application project is once again more of a reflection than anything else. Here it is: In your One-to-One notebook or computer file write your reflections on what Psalm 130 tells us about our condition as humans, and God’s response to that condition. (Hint: We are sinners and God redeems us.) As you consider this brief text and reflect upon it ask yourself, “What does this information tell me about redemption and my need for it?” To make this application a bit more practical, reflect on the past several days of your life. When have you demonstrated your “fallen” nature, (even though you may already be redeemed by Jesus,) and what place does redemption play in your forgiveness of it?

Heavenly Father, Thank You for being the Redeemer of the earth as well as our Creator. Fill me with Your Holy Spirit that I may live in the newness of life and reflect redemption rather than needing it. This I pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.